The president of the Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks has denied the claims of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria that commercial banks are hoarding the new naira note.
This was revealed in a statement signed by ACAMB President Rasheed Bolarinwa and titled “Banks are not hoarding new naira; normalcy will return soon.”
Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has blamed commercial banks for the scarcity of the new naira note. He claimed that banks are hoarding the money and selling it to their special customers; he also promised to sanction any bank that is found guilty of such an act.
In response to this claim by the CBN governor, the president of the ACAMB published a statement in which he expressed sympathy for the unintended consequences of the ongoing rollout of redesigned naira notes and promised that no banks are hoarding the new naira notes.
He also noted that the unintended constraints in the withdrawal of old naira notes and the circulation of new naira notes, alongside the national policy to enhance cashless transactions, had unintended effects on the generality of the Nigerian populace and promised that the new naira note will be available in all banks’ ATMs and branches so that the process can be seamless.
Furthermore, the ACAMB President acknowledges Nigeria’s bank investment of N100 billion invested in electronic channels such as mobile apps, Automated Teller Machines, mobile wallets, unstructured supplementary service data codes, and digital franchises, among others, in order to promote a cashless society in line with the CBN objectives.
Ratecaptain believes that there are some internal sources in the commercial banks that are manipulating the situation by selling the new naira notes to some special agents. The appropriate authorities, as well as the commercial bank management itself, must monitor their employees and prosecute anyone found guilty.